This basic paleo blueberry muffins recipe comes at a perfect time. It’s blueberry season around here. Blueberries are showing up at our local farmers’ markets in huge quantities. People flock to the u-pick farms for the pleasure of plucking these little nutrition powerhouses from the bushes themselves. Blueberries are anti-inflammatory and filled with good things like manganese, vitamin C, vitamin K and fiber. They are relatively low in sugar which makes them an ideal fruit for lower carb diets. But blueberries are also beautiful and traditional and, well, they are blue! Not many other foods can claim this color.

We have a couple of blueberry bushes in our backyard so when their buds emerged earlier in the season (April 1st) I pulled out my macro lens to capture these images. There’s just something amazing about seeing God’s beauty up close. It becomes something totally different and often even more impressive.

Beautiful, nutritious, and delicious – blueberries have a lot going for them. Eating them fresh is ideal. But if you find yourself with some extra blueberries lying around, or if you have been to one of those u-pick farms and have bushels, you may want to turn a few into paleo blueberry muffins.

The other reason this recipe comes at a perfect time is because we just figured out our oldest son, Benjamin, has outgrown his allergy to almonds. Benjamin’s allergy skin tests always showed a milder reaction to almonds than any other nuts. So I wondered if this day might come. It has been tough helping him transition to a paleo way of eating because of that allergy. He’s been primarily limited to coconut flour recipes with the exception of Paleo Dinner Rolls which used tapioca flour (those were a hit!) But it’s quite a relief to be able to feed him things with almond flour now and then without worry. In fact, our pediatric allergist encouraged us to feed the boys nuts they can tolerate so they do not develop an allergy. (Please consult a physician prior to attempting reintroduction of nuts into the diet if there is a known allergy history.)

Hi Lea!
Yours is the very first, among MANY blogs that i found when I first started on this “Paleo” path only 20 days ago. I had never heard of it before. I decided to start with a 30 day, as strict as I could make it, sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy free diet (Allowing butter and eggs). I’vee been doing well!
I’ve read sooo many different blogs from SUPER STRICT Primal folks, to those that say they live “paleo”, but use things in baking that those “super strict” Paleo folks say are NOT PALEO AT ALL!
That’s actually a quote I read.
As I am on this journey now, facing my cravings and continuing to educate myself everyday by reading whatever I can find about gluten and dairy and their possible effects on me, I’ve decided that what I want MOST is to eat best for my body.
Whether or not that’s called Paleo. Ya know? I started to become confused by all the different opinions I found while reading all these smartly written blogs when I found myself asking, well, what’s not “healthy” about almond meal?? And what’s the harm in making something tasty in the oven USING that almond meal as part of a recipe if it stays gluten free? Because “grok” didn’t have an oven I shouldn’t eat something baked?
🙂
Anyway, after everything, I started gearing my thoughts more on what will be a healthy lifestyle of eating for me instead of what restrictions I need to have.
Eventually, I will have some kind of panel done to see what I am allergic to, so that will be helpful for me in making better decisions, but until then I do want to stay gluten free because of ALL the overwhelming evidence that shows how it messes up our guts.
Well, what I really wanted to say to you was that being tossed here and there like that proverbial leaf in the wind, I got your blueberry recipe in my email (that I signed up to receive) and honey?
A usual, reading anything from you came as such a nice breath of fresh air!
And not only because you are a fellow believer, but a soft, laid back voice in a monstrous sea of rough waters of information.
It’s helped me decide for myself how I really want to live with food!
So I wanted to thank you for that!
And to let you know that when you’re putting up your posts and probably at times wondering if you make any kind of a difference, you do.
🙂
I’m pretty darned glad you’re there. Your blog started me on my way, and I’m SO thankful yours is the first I read, because you softly set the tone for my often too legalistic ways of making decisions.
It seems He always brings me back to something on your blog that makes me inhale and breathe normally again!! LOL

Hope I said all of that in a way it made sense to you!
Thanks again!
Michele

Michele,
You have no idea what your comment means to me. I was having the most terrible day in a terrible week and then I read your comment. It literally made me tear up. It was just the encouragement I needed at just the right time. Thank you. 🙂
Best, Lea

Is this recipe missing a crucial ingredient, say 2-3 cups of liquid? This was so bone dry I had to add 2.5 cups of coconut milk to make it even resemble a batter that would stand up to baking. I’m curious to hear the results of others.

Emily,
I just made them again yesterday morning and while the batter is pretty thick it definitely doesn’t need 2-3 cups of liquid. It doesn’t need to be like a cake batter. Maybe a little extra liquid wouldn’t hurt and I would say it does most likely need 1/3 cup of honey instead of 1/4. But the 3 large eggs, butter and honey were enough for my muffins to turn out well. Curious how yours ended up.

Hello. I had a similar issue with this, and I’m not sure why it differs from the original recipe. I was thinking that it may have to do with the type of almond flour being used, but I’m not sure. I’m using the Bob’s Red Mill almond flour, and this calls for a blanched almond flour. Not sure if that would have any impact on this. Everything else about the recipe was the same, not much variance there.

I went with 1/3 cup of honey, and added 1 cup of almond milk. The batter was thicker than I am used to, but went by the comments that it needed to be thicker. The baking turned out just fine.

My second time around with the recipe, though, I did increase the temperature from 325 to 350, and went 25-30 minutes.

Just wanted to throw my experience in with this since there is a question about the consistency of the batter.

I was thinking that maybe a picture of the batter before it goes in to the cupcake pan might help some of us feel a little better about some of the differences we don’t know to expect with paleo style recipes.

Hi Ben,
THanks for adding in your experience. I’m sure it will be helpful to many readers. Blanched almond flour does make a difference in baked goods. Bob’s Red Mill tends to be heavier and produces an oilier result in my experience. I will take your suggestion to provide a photo of the batter. Next time I make them I will snap a shot and load it into the post. Great suggestion!
Lea

Really good! Moist…flavorful…even better on day two…wonderful use for the perfect organic blueberries from my CSA. First time I’ve had a muffin in two years since going gluten/grain free; what a treat! And my non-Paleo family loved them; they thought they were moist corn muffins with blueberries in them. Thanks so much for the recipe and beautiful photographs.

Hi Lea, I made these muffins and they came out great. I think I may be sensitive to tapioca flour and I was wondering if there is a way to omit them completely but still maintain the texture of the muffins? Thanks.

Hi Sara,
We have nut allergies too so I know what you are dealing with. Unfortunately, for this particular recipe I don’t have an easy substitute. Coconut flour is the obvious choice for “grain free” baking. Most people who are allergic to nuts can tolerate coconut flour (it’s actually a seed). I have several nut-free recipes for cake and a donut but I don’t have one for a muffin. I guess this should motivate me to try that.
Lea

I just made these and sampled one warm from the over. They’re fantastic! Love the subtle sweetness, and the texture is great! It’s so hard to find good gluten-free recipes, so I really appreciate it when I do. Not sure why others had trouble with the liquids. I used 3 large eggs, Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour and Tapioca flour.

Hi Lea! this is the first time I’m commenting, and just like many others, your blog has been extremely helpful in my grain-free (or at least wheat-free) Paleo journey! I made your paleo banana pancakes the other day and OMG so good!!!

Now I want to try these muffins, but I’m just curious. Do you think it’s possible to substitute some of the almond flour for tapioca or coconut flour? I’m asking because we don’t have almond flour in Argentina, and usually I grind whole almonds in the food processor but almonds are very expensive. So I was thinking, do you think there might be a way to use 1 cup of almond flour instead of 2, and then substituting the extra cup of almond flour with some other type of flour?

Hi Felicia,
Thanks for the compliments. I really appreciate them.
I believe you can substitute for some of the almond flour. Just be sure you DO NOT substitute it with the same amount of coconut flour. Coconut flour is so much drier and absorbent – a little goes a long way. Maybe mix everything together (but just one cup of almond flour) and then add coconut flour a tablespoon at a time until you get a good batter. Let me know if you try and how it works. I’ll give a go next time I make these and will comment here as well.
Best, Lea

I just wanted to say thank you soooo much! My baby girl is coming home from college tomorrow and she is so very excited to come home and eat these every day this summer (like last summer) I searched and searched for a good paleo recipe and tried and tried other ones and this one is the BEST by very far. Thank you so much again!

OH MY GOODNESS! Delicious!
I added half a banana to the wet ingredients and used only 1/4 cup of honey. I might even knock down the honey to 1/8 cup next time because they were plenty sweet. I also used Bob’s Red Mill almond flour and the batter was a bit thick, but the end result was just fine. More than fine. So yum!

These are the best. I read past comments about not being moist enough and I have not had that problem. I use large eggs and 1/3 cup of honey and i mix very throughly. My non paleo friends and family love them too. thanks so much, been cooking them since last year and will keep on cooking them in fact I even got a comment that they are better than more traditional muffins. thanks Niki